04-18-2007, 10:34 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-ramana+Apr 17 2007, 04:28 PM-->QUOTE(ramana @ Apr 17 2007, 04:28 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Jay Weidner essay on Kubrick's 2001
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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Writing credits
Arthur C. Clarke story The Sentinel (uncredited) &
Arthur C. Clarke screenplay &
Stanley Kubrick screenplay
Produced by
Stanley Kubrick .... producer
Victor Lyndon .... associate producer (uncredited)
Cinematography by
Geoffrey Unsworth
Film Editing by
Ray Lovejoy
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Stanley Kubrick made 13 films in 46 years. His first film Fear and Desire , was made in 1953 for almost no money. It has rarely been seen. His last film Eyes Wide Shut was finished in 1999. Kubrick died as soon as the editing was completed. <i> Any connection of his death to his knowledge of psy ops and the real motive of his movies.
</i>
Having always been a Kubrick fan, his death jolted me. I began to think about him and some of the many stories I heard about him. He was a funny looking Jewish kid, a high school dropout, from the Bronx. He had an early interest in photography and soon was shooting stills for Look Magazine. After that he went to become a filmmaker. After completing a couple of interesting documentaries, he directed five commercial films over the next 8 years. This would be his highest period for output in his entire life.
Kubrick left the United States in 1961 and moved to England. There, it is reported that, he lived in a weird, old castle on a huge estate. He never came back to live in America. Robert Temple told me that Stanley was obsessed with Nazi memorabilia. I heard the rumor that Stanley had a provision in his contract at Pinewood Studios that the sets for 2001 could not be torn down for two years after the shoot was completed. Kubrick would come by the studio, late at night, always alone, and walk through the sets very slowly. When the sets were finally torn down it was rumored that Stanley went into a deep depression.
There is also the famous Stephen King story of the phone ringing in the middle of the night. Stephen answers and it is Stanley calling from London. He is on the set of 'The Shining' and his voice sounds anxious. 'Do you believe in God?', Stanley demanded. Stephen cleared his throat and answered 'yes'. Stanley gruffly replied ' I knew it' and hangs up on Stephen. King, who clearly does not understand what Stanley was doing, disowned Kubrick's film of King's book.
2001' took an entire generation by storm. It was the late '60's and the largest generation on the planet was seeing the film on a ritualized basis. Cinerama theaters across the country reported scores of 'drugged-out' hippies flocking to the theater on a nightly basis to 'trip out' on the film.
Strangely though, no one in the audience really seemed to know what the film was about. The film seemed to cause everyone to come away with a different interpretation. And no one could adequately explain the last 25 minutes. It was generally agreed that this was the most controversial part of the entire movie. Indeed many thousands of hours were taken up in coffee houses and dormitories, in universities and colleges, discussing the various possible meanings that the ending was describing. Everyone agreed that it had something to do with transformation, but no one knew really much more than that. Even Arthur C. Clarke, who helped Stanley write the script, didn't understand the unusual ending. And Stanley wasn't talking. He steadfastly refused to discuss what '2001' was about to anyone. In the rare interviews that he did give, concerning the film, he again refused to discuss the content at all. Most critics at the time thought that Kubrick simply did not know how to conclude the movie so he contrived this ending. I can assure you that this is not so. The ending to the '2001' explains everything that Stanley is conveying in the rest of the film. Without the ending, the film would be nearly worthless. It is in that ending that Kubrick reveals his deep inner profound knowledge of alchemy, gnosticism and the ancient view of the spirit domain.
After finally landing on the moon, meeting with some Russians, Floyd gives a strange speech explaining to a group of military and scientific beauraocrats how they must keep what they have found completely secret. It seems that the Americans have discovered something of immense significance. News this important, he says, could cause severe psychological problems with the good citizens back on Earth. He tells the group of scientists and military men that humans on Earth will have to be 'conditioned' to accept what it is that they found. Floyd blandly explains why is it so important that they must concoct a cover story. A story that says an epidemic has broken out at the American moon base. Kubrick reveals, in this scene, the contempt that our masters of the Military Industrial complex hold for us. The truth of something amazing must be held secret from us until we are conditioned to receive it. <span style='color:red'>This is done with such a masterful sleight-of-hand by Kubrick that the implications are never really considered by the viewer. The Pentagon, NASA, or someone, is hiding the most astonishing fact of all from the rest of the human race. And everyone on the screen shakes their head in approval without considering the import of what it is they are doing. </span>
<span style='color:red'><b>
Kubrick transformed the entire baby boomer generation. He opened up vistas in the mind for them that had never been seen before. </b>
Furthermore he gave an important spiritual context to his visions so that they made sense instead of just being mindless hallucinations and visions that went nowhere. Almost everyone sensed that the movie was saying something of immense importance. </span>
Finally we get to Kubrick's ultimate trick. He proves that he knows exactly what he is doing with this trick. His secret is in plain sight. He also proves, with this trick, that everything being said in this essay is correct. First one must remember that every time the monolith, the magical stone, appears in the film there is also a strange, beautiful, celestial alignment occurring. 2012
Once again, the secret of the film is completely revealed from the beginning. There is a monolith that appears right after the opening sequence with the magical, lunar eclipse. But where is it? It is right in front of the viewer's eyes! <span style='color:red'>The film is the monolith. In a secret that seems to never have been seen by anyone: the monolith in the film has the same exact dimensions as the movie screen on which 2001 was projected. Completely hidden, from critic and fan alike, until now, is the fact that Kubrick consciously designed his film to be the monolith, the stone that transforms. Like the monolith, the film projects images into our heads that make us consider wider possibilities and ideas. Like the monolith, the film ultimately presents an initiation, not just of the actor on the screen, but also of the audience viewing the film. That is Kubrick's ultimate trick.</span> He slyly shows here that he knows what he is doing at every step in the process. The monolith and the movie are the same thing. This idea has been partially proven by the fact that Stanley never again used that size ratio for any other films that he would make for the rest of his career. He carefully decided to make '2001' his last film done with this screen size ratio.
The black, single stone becomes the container of creation and the alchemical cube at the same time. It is, in a way, a cubed brick. Is this another trick of Stanley's, who's last name (Kubrick, 'Cubed-Brick') mirror's that concept so clearly? This black stone of creation is also one of the main features in the Islamic religion, where a black meteorite sits near the kaaba, or cube of space, in the Arabian city of Mecca. Kubrick has combined these many deeply held spiritual traditions and symbols and refashioned them into the monolith, or stone,
The great alchemist Fulcanelli and others have said that a great transmutation of the human species is going to takes place at some time near the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. Kubrick picked the date 2001 - which is astonishingly close to other dates prescribed by many ancient alchemists - including Nostradamus. What are we to make of the strange date that Kubrick picked out for the final transformation of the human species? 2012
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[right][snapback]67320[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Writing credits
Arthur C. Clarke story The Sentinel (uncredited) &
Arthur C. Clarke screenplay &
Stanley Kubrick screenplay
Produced by
Stanley Kubrick .... producer
Victor Lyndon .... associate producer (uncredited)
Cinematography by
Geoffrey Unsworth
Film Editing by
Ray Lovejoy
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Stanley Kubrick made 13 films in 46 years. His first film Fear and Desire , was made in 1953 for almost no money. It has rarely been seen. His last film Eyes Wide Shut was finished in 1999. Kubrick died as soon as the editing was completed. <i> Any connection of his death to his knowledge of psy ops and the real motive of his movies.
</i>
Having always been a Kubrick fan, his death jolted me. I began to think about him and some of the many stories I heard about him. He was a funny looking Jewish kid, a high school dropout, from the Bronx. He had an early interest in photography and soon was shooting stills for Look Magazine. After that he went to become a filmmaker. After completing a couple of interesting documentaries, he directed five commercial films over the next 8 years. This would be his highest period for output in his entire life.
Kubrick left the United States in 1961 and moved to England. There, it is reported that, he lived in a weird, old castle on a huge estate. He never came back to live in America. Robert Temple told me that Stanley was obsessed with Nazi memorabilia. I heard the rumor that Stanley had a provision in his contract at Pinewood Studios that the sets for 2001 could not be torn down for two years after the shoot was completed. Kubrick would come by the studio, late at night, always alone, and walk through the sets very slowly. When the sets were finally torn down it was rumored that Stanley went into a deep depression.
There is also the famous Stephen King story of the phone ringing in the middle of the night. Stephen answers and it is Stanley calling from London. He is on the set of 'The Shining' and his voice sounds anxious. 'Do you believe in God?', Stanley demanded. Stephen cleared his throat and answered 'yes'. Stanley gruffly replied ' I knew it' and hangs up on Stephen. King, who clearly does not understand what Stanley was doing, disowned Kubrick's film of King's book.
2001' took an entire generation by storm. It was the late '60's and the largest generation on the planet was seeing the film on a ritualized basis. Cinerama theaters across the country reported scores of 'drugged-out' hippies flocking to the theater on a nightly basis to 'trip out' on the film.
Strangely though, no one in the audience really seemed to know what the film was about. The film seemed to cause everyone to come away with a different interpretation. And no one could adequately explain the last 25 minutes. It was generally agreed that this was the most controversial part of the entire movie. Indeed many thousands of hours were taken up in coffee houses and dormitories, in universities and colleges, discussing the various possible meanings that the ending was describing. Everyone agreed that it had something to do with transformation, but no one knew really much more than that. Even Arthur C. Clarke, who helped Stanley write the script, didn't understand the unusual ending. And Stanley wasn't talking. He steadfastly refused to discuss what '2001' was about to anyone. In the rare interviews that he did give, concerning the film, he again refused to discuss the content at all. Most critics at the time thought that Kubrick simply did not know how to conclude the movie so he contrived this ending. I can assure you that this is not so. The ending to the '2001' explains everything that Stanley is conveying in the rest of the film. Without the ending, the film would be nearly worthless. It is in that ending that Kubrick reveals his deep inner profound knowledge of alchemy, gnosticism and the ancient view of the spirit domain.
After finally landing on the moon, meeting with some Russians, Floyd gives a strange speech explaining to a group of military and scientific beauraocrats how they must keep what they have found completely secret. It seems that the Americans have discovered something of immense significance. News this important, he says, could cause severe psychological problems with the good citizens back on Earth. He tells the group of scientists and military men that humans on Earth will have to be 'conditioned' to accept what it is that they found. Floyd blandly explains why is it so important that they must concoct a cover story. A story that says an epidemic has broken out at the American moon base. Kubrick reveals, in this scene, the contempt that our masters of the Military Industrial complex hold for us. The truth of something amazing must be held secret from us until we are conditioned to receive it. <span style='color:red'>This is done with such a masterful sleight-of-hand by Kubrick that the implications are never really considered by the viewer. The Pentagon, NASA, or someone, is hiding the most astonishing fact of all from the rest of the human race. And everyone on the screen shakes their head in approval without considering the import of what it is they are doing. </span>
<span style='color:red'><b>
Kubrick transformed the entire baby boomer generation. He opened up vistas in the mind for them that had never been seen before. </b>
Furthermore he gave an important spiritual context to his visions so that they made sense instead of just being mindless hallucinations and visions that went nowhere. Almost everyone sensed that the movie was saying something of immense importance. </span>
Finally we get to Kubrick's ultimate trick. He proves that he knows exactly what he is doing with this trick. His secret is in plain sight. He also proves, with this trick, that everything being said in this essay is correct. First one must remember that every time the monolith, the magical stone, appears in the film there is also a strange, beautiful, celestial alignment occurring. 2012
Once again, the secret of the film is completely revealed from the beginning. There is a monolith that appears right after the opening sequence with the magical, lunar eclipse. But where is it? It is right in front of the viewer's eyes! <span style='color:red'>The film is the monolith. In a secret that seems to never have been seen by anyone: the monolith in the film has the same exact dimensions as the movie screen on which 2001 was projected. Completely hidden, from critic and fan alike, until now, is the fact that Kubrick consciously designed his film to be the monolith, the stone that transforms. Like the monolith, the film projects images into our heads that make us consider wider possibilities and ideas. Like the monolith, the film ultimately presents an initiation, not just of the actor on the screen, but also of the audience viewing the film. That is Kubrick's ultimate trick.</span> He slyly shows here that he knows what he is doing at every step in the process. The monolith and the movie are the same thing. This idea has been partially proven by the fact that Stanley never again used that size ratio for any other films that he would make for the rest of his career. He carefully decided to make '2001' his last film done with this screen size ratio.
The black, single stone becomes the container of creation and the alchemical cube at the same time. It is, in a way, a cubed brick. Is this another trick of Stanley's, who's last name (Kubrick, 'Cubed-Brick') mirror's that concept so clearly? This black stone of creation is also one of the main features in the Islamic religion, where a black meteorite sits near the kaaba, or cube of space, in the Arabian city of Mecca. Kubrick has combined these many deeply held spiritual traditions and symbols and refashioned them into the monolith, or stone,
The great alchemist Fulcanelli and others have said that a great transmutation of the human species is going to takes place at some time near the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. Kubrick picked the date 2001 - which is astonishingly close to other dates prescribed by many ancient alchemists - including Nostradamus. What are we to make of the strange date that Kubrick picked out for the final transformation of the human species? 2012
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